Marcel has a confession to make. Turns out, he’s a bit of a shopaholic. After five days on a sailboat and hardly any civilization, Panama City and its countless shopping malls do the trick. And it’s not like I put up much resistance… That’s how we end up in the city’s biggest mall shortly after arriving in Panama. And it feels kinda wrong, but at the same time it’s great to be here too. It all feels very American: it’s huge (you can actually get lost!), there’s an enormous food court, a carousel and even a little train that you can ride through the shopping center (and that very nearly runs us over a couple of times).

Zügli und Karussell

Irritierende Schaufensterpuppen Teil 3

Der Name ist Programm

Obviously, we don’t spend all of our time in the city shopping. We check out the old town called Casco Viejo, which is beautiful, but doesn’t really surprise us after having been to Cartagena. And we admire the impressive skyline of the city with all its skyscrapers. Generally, the US-American influence is omnipresent. It shows in the city’s modern skyline, the many international fast food restaurants and Panama’s currency, the Balboa, which is tied to the US dollar at an exchange rate of 1:1.

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On our last day in the city, we visit the world famous Panama Canal. We know that the big container ships pass the locks early in the morning and at around 4pm. Since mornings are not really our thing, we decide to head there in the afternoon. The entrance fee of 15 dollars is quite hefty. Especially when we realize that the observation deck closes at 5pm. So we rush through the museum and head straight for the platform. Luckily, we arrive in time to see two pretty big ships pass through the locks.

By 4:50pm, loudspeaker announcements asking visitors to leave are getting unfriendlier and a security is showing people to the door. Even though ships are still passing and the biggest one is actually just arriving, we are persuaded to leave when the loudspeaker guy threatens us that we’ll have to sleep on the platform if we don’t leave immediately. Weirdly, they’re always very punctual when it comes to closing time here in Latin America.

Finally back on that surfboard!

It’s been a long time and we dearly missed it – surfing! After a month without it, we can finally get back on that board. We find a nice hostel very close to the beach in El Palmar and spend a few fun days in the waves. Our hostel is also meeting point for the locals, so after a day there we pretty much know everyone.

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On Saturday night, there’s a volleyball tournament in the yard of our hostel. We have the impression, that the tournament is more of an excuse to get drunk together. Half the town is present and ready to party. Luckily, we are so relaxed by now that we sleep like babies pretty much anywhere, plus we have a private room. The next morning, we circle around the passed out drunks that are still lying in our yard and are the first ones out in the line up. Win-win!